I’m always on the lookout for fresh illustrations and analogies that apply to the writing process. Here’s one I just heard last week where author Salman Rushdie compared writing symphony music with how he used to write which was a very structured approach where the story was planned out, and how he writes now which […]
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Over the weekend I started a massive project to organize my old photos. A couple decades of slides and negative film before I started shooting digitally in 2006. The first shot was taken at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. It’s a quintessential backlot location as you can see the Hollywood sign in the background. I was […]
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“Moss Hart said the audience will give you all their attention in the play’s first fifteen minutes; but in the sixteenth minute they will decide whether to go on the journey you want them to take. The first fifteen minutes draws up the contract of your agreement with the audience. You can subvert it or […]
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Tell all the Truth but tell it slant —Success in Circuit liesToo bright for our infirm DelightThe Truth’s superb surpriseAs Lightning to the Children easedWith explanation kindThe Truth must dazzle graduallyOr every man be blind ——Emily Dickinson poem # 1129 (Tell all the Truth but tell it slant) The Emily Dickinson poem known as Tell […]
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“One day in August a man disappeared. He had simply set out for the seashore on a holiday, scarcely half a day by train, and nothing more was ever heard of him.”The opening words from the novel The Woman in the Dunes by Kôbô Abe Last night I was able to close the gap one […]
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“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”Opening line of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka In the second chapter of my book Screenwriting with Brass Knuckles I discuss a long list of filmmakers, musicians, screenwriters and artists —Spielberg, Stravinsky, Paul Schrader, Salvador Dali—who […]
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Often times writers get into debates about which computers and screenwriting software are best. And others complain about the expense of computers and screenwriting software. (Though there are some pretty darn cheap computers these days—as in laptops cheaper than Xbox video game consoles— and screenwriting software that’s free.) But it’s worth pointing out some some […]
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“Stories are about people who are messed up. . . . Comedy is where it all goes wrong.”—Judd ApatowExample A: Bridesmaids where Kristian Wigg’s character has it all goes wrong in her life—conflict with her career, her love life, and with her family and best friends. “You know people go to the movies to see […]
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For various reasons when The Right Stuff landed in movie theaters in 1984 it did not find a wide audience. But I was glad to experience it in all its glory on the big screen. I was in film school at the time and just delighted by the overall filmmaking of the movie. I was […]
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“[Screenwriter Bo Goldman told me] that while the dialogue was essential, the actors’ reactions to things were even more important. . . . Later, when I met director Blake Edwards, he said the same thing. ‘The reaction to the action is critical.’ To have a great line is nice, but to have a strong and memorable […]
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